At the present time, it is a virtual certainty that the major home heating energy sources such as coal, oil, electricity an gas are all going to come into increasingly short supply, or at least their price will increase very significantly in the years to come.
In many areas of the world, there still is an abundant supply of wood, which can serve as an alternate source of heating for homes and other buildings.
Particularly in homes, wood is burned in a fireplace. However, the conventional fireplace is an extremely inefficient means for heating the home. It barely heats a room and, because of the draft up the chimney of a fire-place having an active fire, it can actually cool down other rooms of the home by sending the interior air up the chimney in a constant draft.
While the Franklin stove and similar devices are more efficient for the heating of a room in a home or another building in wintertime, they are no longer popular in homes for aesthetic reasons, and they are not as effective as modern devices for heating an entire home on a full time basis.
In accordance with this invention, a home fireplace is provided which is in heat exchange communication with a modern circulating fluid home heating system, such as a forced air system. Accordingly, the aesthetic pleasures of a home fireplace can be combined with a source of home heating which is of much greater efficiency than has been available with the previously known fireplace systems, in that a larger percentage of the heat generated by a fire in the fireplace is transferred to a conventional circulating fluid central heating system for distribution throughout the home. Additionally, the fireplace system of this invention is adapted to restrict, as is desired, the outflow of interior building air through the chimney as the fireplace is used.
Accordingly, the fireplace system of this invention can be used for aesthetic reasons, when desired, while gaining a significant amount of heat from the fireplace which is distributed throughout the house by the circulating fluid central heating system. In times of fuel shortage, the fireplace can be used to burn auxiliary fuels such as wood, to assume the burden of warming the house when electricity, oil, or gas is unduly expensive or not available.